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Final Fantasy Vii Timeline Walkthrough
Topic Started: Apr 19 2011, 01:39 AM (3,000 Views)
Jon Snow
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khaleesi ♥
Oh, wow! Man, I'm really glad someone's doing this. I was trying to but ended up stopping when I ran out of time. So thanks a lot. :3

I'm totally against the timeline of how long the game supposedly took. it just does not make sense. :unsure:
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Alan Bates
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That one guy
Zee
May 5 2011, 07:53 PM
I love this topic, Alan. Aside from the fact that I totally agree about FF7's timeline being wonky (they never go off schedule, they barely sleep, they travel inhumanly fast across continents, etc) it's a nice trip down memory lane.

Honestly, even the way I'm doing it, I think you could easily slip a few more days here and there in, for weather, bad monster attacks, getting lost while traveling cross country.



One quick thing I want people's opinions on. How should we handle side quests?
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Ultimavara
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Come away, oh human child, to the waters and the wild.
You could include the side quests that they might realistically want to do, such as getting a reward that's not overly hard to get, and exclude the ones that they would probably skip. For example, would they really want to take on all the Weapons in order to get the prizes from that traveler guy? Maybe not. But would any given party member try to beat all the levels at the Battle Arena in the Gold Saucer? I don't see that as being too unlikely.

I think doing it this way seems to fit with how you've been doing it so far (e.g. considering when they would or wouldn't realistically stop to sleep, etc.)
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Alan Bates
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That one guy
Day 40

The buggy breaks down outside of Cosmo Canyon. Here you find out about Red, his family, his father issues, his real name, the lifestream, what Mako reactors are really doing to the planet, and some more interesting stuff, while your buggy gets repaired.

For time line purposes, let's assume they arrived early morning and spent the whole day there. Aeris specifically says that she's learned a lot from the elders, so I assume she's had time to talk and study with them for a while.

In the evening, Bugenhagen takes Nanaki, Cloud, and a teammate of choice to learn about Red's father Seto.

Here's some interesting bits.

Nanaki is 48, which is 15 or 16 in human years.

Bugenhagen will be 130 this year.

You learn more about Gast, who's been mentioned quite a few times so far. He's specifically referred to as a shinra soldier not a scientist, but a soldier, who spent his life investigating the Ancients. he apparently spent quite a bit of time at Cosmo Canyon.

30 years ago, he found a corpse of an Ancient and named it Jenova.

Years later, he come back to the bar mumbling about how Jenova wasn't an Ancient and that he'd done a terrible thing. He disappeared shortly thereafter.

Elder Hargo has an interesting theory on the Promised Land.
"The promise land doesn't exist for us, but it did for the Ancients"
"the life of the Ancients is one continuous journey. A journey to grow trees, and plants, produce animals, and to raise Mako energy"
"their burial land was the promised land" "Supreme happiness? I believe for the Ancients, it wads the moment they were able to return to the planet at that moment they were released from their fate"

Barret says this is where AVALANCHE started and that he had promised Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie they'd all come back here and celebrate when they had finished up their goal.

This is also the first time Yuffie's materia craze really becomes apparent. She has these two different lines when separated from your party.
"this place looks like a drag and their materia sucks too"
and
"Let's go somewhere else, let's go find some materia!"

Tifa also starts to bring up something that happened five years ago and stops, then she says she feels like Cloud is going away. She asks him if he really is him.

You're also attacked by the Gi tribe here, vengeful spirits that could not return to the lifestream. There's some interesting implications there.

Supposedly the next day you leave when the Buggy is fixed, but I want to give the team another day here so Aeris could learn more about the Cetra. This is the first time she really starts to understand who she is and what her people are, so I think they could spare a little bit more time for her to study some more. ... even if Yuffie hates being here.

So day 42 the set out again.

Day 45
AVALANCHE arrives at Niebelham.
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Anastar
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To touch the light I see in your eyes...
Ultimavara
 
You could include the side quests that they might realistically want to do, such as getting a reward that's not overly hard to get, and exclude the ones that they would probably skip. For example, would they really want to take on all the Weapons in order to get the prizes from that traveler guy? Maybe not. But would any given party member try to beat all the levels at the Battle Arena in the Gold Saucer? I don't see that as being too unlikely.

I think doing it this way seems to fit with how you've been doing it so far (e.g. considering when they would or wouldn't realistically stop to sleep, etc.)

Sounds like a good way to me, Ultimavara.

But what about optional quests like Wutai? :unsure: IMO, that would take at least several days, so it would really effect the time table.
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Prince Roxas
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Just a Nobody
Wutai would take about a week to walk there and a couple of days for the whole Wutai quest with getting the party's materia back. I've always taken Wutai as a main part of the storyline because its Yuffie's main character development. If VII was remade the Stolen Materia quest would probably be intergrated into the main plot.
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Alan Bates
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That one guy
Day 45

(I made a mistake on my playthrough here. I probably should have Tifa on the team when they went back to their hometown, but didn't think too. Oh well.)

So here's where you run across Cloud's old town and he starts to doubt his sanity a bit. Lot's of little tidbits here.
Actually looking around, you can find a note in Tifa's old room, explaining that since the town burnt down, it was rebuilt and staffed with Shinra scientists and mysterious CLONES in black cloaks.

Tidbits: You can see tattoos on various clones with the numbers, 4, 5, 6, 11, and 12. There are four more clones that either don't have tattoos or you don't see them.

The note you read mentions that no CLONES have left town this quarter. So apparently the guy that are sick back in Midgar has been gone for a while. Also, unless I missed something, at least one clone is still unaccounted for.

The town was rebuilt and redecorated EXACTLY the same as it was. I mean EXACTLY. They even copied down where Tifa had hidden her secret savings "1 gil" in the piano. Why?

One of the clones tells you that Sephiroth is in the Mansion so you go in there to confront the guy.

After a bit of searching, Sephiroth hits you with a piece of Materia and flies out of there E. Honda torpedo style. He says if yu want to find out more about Jenova, the reunion, the calamity from the skies, and all that, to go north and Mt. Nibel.

You also meet Vincent here (most likely) and he joins your team.

more interesting tidbits...

If you look carefully, you'll notice some writing scratched into the test tubes in the Shinra Mansion.

C project specimen ( B ) codeC
"let's get out of here"

C project specimen ( A ) codeZ
" 'feeding time' … that's our chance…!"

hhmm... what could that mean? :unsure:

If you examine the library, you'll find more info on these two.

A- former member of soldier No effect of Mako radiation therapy or Jenova detected from him

B-effects detected

A- shot for resisting recapture
B- escaped ("B's where abouts unknown, but no need to pursue due to diminishing consciousness")

Here's a question for you. Who left those notes revealing where Vincent was sleeping and when? They weren't there when Cloud, those two nameless shinra troopers, and Sephiroth visited the mansion five years ago. Did Hojo think he was being funny or something?

There's also the boss fight with "Lost Number" this would account for the missing CLONE if he was in-fact one of them... but if it was, what did they DO to this guy?

Judging by how Vincent closes the coffin lid on himself, he can apparently levitate objects. Does anybody recall ever seeing him do this later in the series?

The actual name of "the Turks" is "Shinra Manufacturing Department in Administrative Research" Or at least that was the name back when Vincent was a member.

Vincent also talks about Lucretia and says one more interesting thing "So, Sephiroth knows he was created five years ago."

They spend the night resting, and the next day it's over the mountains. I'd assume the team wouldn't want to linger around for too long here.

Day 46
The team starts over Mt. Nibel... and Mt. Nibel sucks. If you make a wrong turn and jump off the wrong sot, it can take forever to get back to where you need to be, so between that and the fact that they are climbing a friggin' mountain, we'll double the usual travel time here.

Day 52
The team arrives in Rocket Town.
To make things easy for calculation purposes, let's say they arrive late, sleep, and all the story stuff starts the next day.



Day 53
You walk around, hearing about "The Captain" the rocket, and al that. You also find the Tiny Bronco.

Cloud's reaction to it is ...
There's a Shinra logo on it. Tiny Bronco … This is cool." Stuff like this I miss from the later compilations. It's nice seeing Cloud not angsty all the time. Even Vincent isn't as bad here as he is in later games. He introduces himself to Sherra as "Vincent. My occupation is … forget it."

Aeris's reaction to the Tiny Bronco is ever better though...
"Let's take it, okay Cloud!"

... and everybody always says Yuffie is the team's klepto. :aeris:

So you find Cid, he tells you his story and how Rufus Shinra is coming to town.
Palmer tries to take the Tiny Bronco while Cid and Rufus are talking, he ends up accidentally starting it and letting it run.

You fight him and somebody hits him with a truck. No clue who. (As far as I know, SQUARE says Palmer survived, but I can't find any mention of him appearing ANYWHERE after this.)

The plain starts to take on, the group jumps in, Cid joins them, and the Bronco is shot and damaged during the escape.

Interesting bits here... in Cid's house you can easily see an AK-47 (machine gun) sitting on one of the tables. Cid doesn't use guns. Does this mean Sherra is the gun nut?

One of the people in town says "My job is to make everyone laugh all over the world" That just seems kinda out of place.

as I said before, my team was Aeris, Cloud, and Vincent. When the Brono took off into the sky, Cloud and Vincent had made it on already, but Aeris was still hanging on to the side.


Next up ... Wutai!
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Anastar
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To touch the light I see in your eyes...
Alan Bates
 
more interesting tidbits...

If you look carefully, you'll notice some writing scratched into the test tubes in the Shinra Mansion.

C project specimen ( B ) codeC
"let's get out of here"

C project specimen ( A ) codeZ
" 'feeding time' � that's our chance�!"

hhmm... what could that mean? unsure.gif

If you examine the library, you'll find more info on these two.

A- former member of soldier No effect of Mako radiation therapy or Jenova detected from him

B-effects detected

A- shot for resisting recapture
B- escaped ("B's where abouts unknown, but no need to pursue due to diminishing consciousness")

Is this in regular playthrough? :unsure: I thought you had to go on that optional quest to find that stuff out.
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Prince Roxas
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Just a Nobody
No its always there, the optional scene of Cloud and Zack plays after the Mideel/Lifestream event.
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Alan Bates
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That one guy
Wutai.

Before I go into things, I'd like to explain my choices here. I'm not going to go into every single sidequest, just the ones I think are somewhat important or would have most likely happened.

Considering that Wutai ...
A) Gives Yuffie her backstory and motivation
B) Gives you some rather strong character development for the Turks (and had this not happened, their seeming on nice terms with AVALANCHE in Advent Children wouldn't have fit at all.)
C) Wraps out the Corneo subplot that had been left dangling from earlier.

As to why now, it strikes me that if at any point they DID go to Wutai, this would have been the most obvious one. After you get the Tiny Bronco and discover it's really only good for a boat, you find yourself off the coast of Wutai with only the very vaguest of direction as to where you're going, so making a stop here doesn't seem out of the question.

There is one minor problem I have, which I would like feedback on.

In my game, I got right off first chance and walked the lenght of the island. However I suppose it's possible for your tea to simply ride up the coast. You can actually dock not too far from the city if you like, making the whole thing a much shorter trip. ... however having to make the much longer walk without materia would give the team a better reason to be mad.

So, thoughts, opinions?
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aerithbunny
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My thought is the longer trip is probably what most people did because they did not discover the shorter trip to wutai, I for instance did not find the shorter trip and wound up going a long way...but then again in my game, it glitched and my Aerith who'd had full materia on all of her slots(including her weapon which had a lot) still had her fire materia for some reason >> so it wasn't that difficult because of that. Anyway, I'd say the longer trip does make more sense, but that's up to interpretation mostly from others not just myself.
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Prince Roxas
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Just a Nobody
I agree with all of your reasons Alex, when I first played I first got off the Tiny Bronco at the Wutai continent because it was the closest place you could get off. The quest is a big character development for Yuffie and if you don't go to Wutai you're not exploring a signifent amount of the World Map which seems pretty bizarre to me if there was this large area on the Map and you didn't go to it at all.

I think the Tiny Bronco can only get to the continent at the area near to when you first get control of it. There doesn't seem to be any shallow water that can let you park the Bronco closer to Wutai from what I remember.
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Alan Bates
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Okay. Went back to check, apparently you CAN'T go up the coat. My mistake. I thought you could.

So...

still Day 53

Shortly after arriving on Wutai, you're attacked by some Shinra troopers that seem to be looking for somebody else.

After the fight, Yuffie takes off with your materia. So you're heading north to track her down.

Wutai is has plenty of canyons and cliffs, often leading to dead ends. I don't think I've ever once crossed the continent without taking a wrong turn at least once leading to the loss of what would be several days.

It's hard to measure on the map exactly how long it would take, as the crow flies, it would take at least 11 days. I'll say 13, just to cover all the bases (and even that may be generous.)


Day 66
Arrive in Wutai.

Yuffie plays hide an seek with you a while and you encounter the Turks! ... but Reno doesn't want to fight because he's on vacation.

Shinra troops burst in and say that they've found "him" (they don't say who) but Reno and Rude refuse to help. Elena takes off.

Eventually you find who the "him" is. Don Corneo! and he kidnaps Elena and Yuffie with the help of his ninjas (!?!) These ninjas will never been seen again, after taking away Yuffie and Elena.

So the Turks and AVALANCHE work together saving their respective short haired spunky female team members and send Don Corneo plummeting to his death.

After this fight, Reno gets a call saying to be on the look for Cloud. He blows this off telling Rude that the Turks are still off duty and let's Cloud go.

You get your materia back, learn more about Yuffie's history, spend some time exploring the town, rest, and head back to the Tiny Bronoco.

Here I'm going to be REALLY nice.

With Yuffie back on your team to help you know where you're going, and the fact that you can get Chocobos here (I think. I forgot to check. My fault.) we'll say it only takes 8 days to get back to the Bronco.

Day 75
AVALANCHE arrives back at the Tony Bronco... and with no real idea where you're going, you take off again.

tidbit: one of the townsfolk mentions that Yuffie enjoys sneaking into people's homes and hiding in the shadows "like a little kid". Wutai culture is odd.

When tied up Yuffie comments "If I knew this was gonna happen, I would have taken rope escape lessons more seriously."

Don Corneo is about to start a flashback explaining what happened to him and how he got away from the Shinra earlier when he's interrupted. They do this again in Advent Children when Rufus starts to explain how he survived.

So by this point we're way past the "canon" timeline of the game and not even CLOSE to the end of it yet.
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Alan Bates
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That one guy
testing...

okay. cool. Found away around the double post thing. updates will be soon... possibly now.

Day 75 and you have no clue where you're going. How long does it take you to figure out?

This is a hard one.

Well, if you go to Bone Village you'll find somebody that will tell you all about the Keystone, the Temple of Ancients, the Ancient Forrest, the Harp, and all that fun stuff. Of curse they won't tell you who HAS the keystone, just that some rich guy has it.

If you go to the weapon maker that lives outside of the Golden Saucer, he'll tell you that he had the Keystone but sold it to Dio. Dio struck him as the kind of person you DIDN'T want to say no to.

If you go to North Corel, you'll find the Turks looking for the Keystone.

But again, we run into the problem of how long it's going to take you to figure out where you're going without any real clues.

Now if you're anything like me (and I know I am), what you're probably going to do is look for a place that you haven't been yet. Let's assume Cloud does the same and they wind up in Bone Village.

It's more or less ten days from Wutai, one way. Another ten to get back to Wutai... except you're not going back to Wutai, you're going to Then Golden Saucer... so add another six days (and I'm being NICE here) to get to the weapon maker, and another four days to cross back to North Corel in order to get into the Golden Saucer. ...

Wow this is taking a long time. and Keep in mind, it could easily take MUCH longer, since I'm being generous on my estimates here and the team really doesn't know where it's supposed to be going anyway.

day 105!
You arrive at the Golden Saucer. More on this later.
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Prince Roxas
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Just a Nobody
From my memory, you had to visit the Weapon Seller first in order to trigger the Keystone being at the Golden Saucer but maybe I'm wrong, I replayed VII last year and I always found my way to Bone Village first. And it would take a LONG time to get there on the Tiny Bronco.

Wow we're at Day 105 now! Yes Disc 1 always took place within 3-4 months in my head awsome work Alex.
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